Organizing...Many Pieces!

As we head back into our classrooms (or spaces), we clean, purge, organize and prepare the best we can for the little humans that will be with us for the next 10 months.  It is a fresh time.

Puzzles have been a staple in our first grade classrooms the past couple years when we realized that it was becoming a lost art.  It provides great critical thinking, problem solving, and organizational skills for out students.  But many did not know how to complete one.  So we worked on this.
This year my teammate has added memory games.  These help to support student concentration and visual memory. Not to mention, it is a way for students to ease into their days calmly.

One problem...both games require many pieces.  And we are talking about little kids-pieces get dropped, lost, misplaced. (Okay-let's be honest-I'm an adult and do the exact same thing to small pieces).

My teammate has put each of the memory games and puzzles into small plastic containers.  They are clearly labeled with the picture of the game/puzzle on them.  Students know exactly what they are working on because they are so clearly marked.

She also added a number to each piece and container.  This means when a piece does end up on the floor, a table, or another box--it can easily be placed back into the correct plastic box.

Sometimes it can be these small changes that add calmness to a classroom.  And that calmness might be just what a student needs.